[CPEO-BIF] Experimental "TCE vapor test results not verified, " Mountain View, California

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

TCE vapor test results not verified

New machine failed to produce 'instant' proof on presence of toxic  
chemical

Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice (CA)
April 19, 2013

Residents of a condo complex at 175 Evandale Avenue say recent tests  
of their homes for toxic vapors produced erroneous results.

On March 25, the Washington-based R.J. Lee Group sought to  
demonstrate and test a $300,000 "Proton Transfer Reaction Mass  
Spectrometer" (PTRMS) that can instantly test for the presence of  
toxic gases in the air. In [mv five homes it found elevated levels of  
trichlorotethylene (TCE) vapors], the chemical that has polluted much  
of the groundwater in the area near the complex. It wasn't a far- 
fetched result -- two homes across the street were found by the  
Environmental Protection Agency to have elevated levels of TCE  
earlier this year.

But air samples taken by the EPA in the complex, after being analyzed  
in a lab, "have generally not confirmed" the spectrometer's results,  
said Alana Lee, EPA project manager. "It's my understanding" that  
R.J. Lee's own air samples taken at the time of the tests, after  
being analyzed, couldn't confirm the instant results of the PTRMS  
either, she added.

R.J. Lee group's Jim Conca said in an email to the Voice that the  
firm is still analyzing what happened, three weeks later, though Todd  
Rodgers, the chemist who oversaw the tests, said R.J. Lee's own  
samples could be analyzed within a week to confirm the results of the  
PTRMS.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=6854&e=y

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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